I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm just saying that the payoff to the feud is going to be Storm winning at some point (or at least it should be). Storm winning in his home town inside a cage was a really cool idea too. Problem was that it was the first match between the two so it's not out of TNA's realm to not change the title in the first match between guys (in months). What I'm saying is that if the feud started in like January or February and this was the FINAL match of the feud where Roode weaseled out of the title matches only to get in a cage with nowhere to run and finally lose, that would have been a satisfying conclusion.

Storm was in the title match at Against All Odds. Tonight would have been a satisfying conclusion.

I hope Roode gets lucky against Van Dam and Aries and drops to Hardy, the legit top guy in the company.

Storm was in the title match at Against All Odds. Tonight would have been a satisfying conclusion.

I hope Roode gets lucky against Van Dam and Aries and drops to Hardy, the legit top guy in the company.

Well, tonight would have been, but it wasn't. I'm honestly not sure where to go now. Hardy is the most popular but a long title reign by a bad guy is often best served to end to a new guy to show how awesome he is. In a lot of ways, that could be Aries if he drops the X title. I'm not the biggest Storm fan but I do think Storm had been built up to take it here. He could have had a pretty sweet long run too. He wins the rematch, then beats Bully a time or two and all of a sudden you have an awesome babyface champ. Could have been cool, but not to be I suppose.

I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm just saying that the payoff to the feud is going to be Storm winning at some point (or at least it should be). Storm winning in his home town inside a cage was a really cool idea too. Problem was that it was the first match between the two so it's not out of TNA's realm to not change the title in the first match between guys (in months). What I'm saying is that if the feud started in like January or February and this was the FINAL match of the feud where Roode weaseled out of the title matches only to get in a cage with nowhere to run and finally lose, that would have been a satisfying conclusion.

I dunno. I kinda like the conclusion of, despite the heel having nowhere to run, he still finds a way into holding his title which reeks of him 'fleeing'. Despite the cage, he's still found a way to eke out victory.

The Playbook of Professional Wrestling Storylines would normally say that the next match features a special guest referee or enforcer in order to ensure fairness, but I'm not sure that applies in this instance. That'll be in two months. Next month, Roode beats Storm again, month after is the payoff match. Hulk Hogan referees, Storm gets a "last chance" at the title, and the story becomes about whether Hogan can be trusted.

I wouldn't be shocked if James Storm never wins the title from Bobby Roode. People seem to expect that's the natural ending to this story, and that's when you pull off the swerve. Russo's creative had the bad habit of swerving for the sake of swerving; leading people to believe that Storm's coronation as champion is eminent, then pulling out the rug from underneath them would really set some people off.... and cause them to tune in next Thursday.

__________________The Internet learns fast. CM Punk has been signed with the UFC for only a few short weeks, and everyone's already an MMA expert.

I thought it was a pretty solid show all things considered, but man, that crowd was straight up one of the worst I have EVER seen in my life. That MCMG/Joe & Magnus tag title match was off the fucking chain and they just sat on their hands for all of it so you could hear crickets in the background while these four are putting on one of the best straight up tag matches I've seen in a long ass time in TNA. So lame. The main event had the totally wrong finish too, but hey, that's kind of TNA's thing isn't it? Always putting the wrong guy over in the big blow off match. No one will ever care more about the Roode/Storm rivalry than they did going into Lockdown, and as usual, they blew their chance to have a great moment with the babyface triumphing over evil. Good match but man, SUCH a dumb finish.

Anywho, here's my report/review of the show I did for 411mania if anyone's curious:

I thought it was a pretty solid show all things considered, but man, that crowd was straight up one of the worst I have EVER seen in my life. That MCMG/Joe & Magnus tag title match was off the fucking chain and they just sat on their hands for all of it so you could hear crickets in the background while these four are putting on one of the best straight up tag matches I've seen in a long ass time in TNA. So lame. The main event had the totally wrong finish too, but hey, that's kind of TNA's thing isn't it? Always putting the wrong guy over in the big blow off match. No one will ever care more about the Roode/Storm rivalry than they did going into Lockdown, and as usual, they blew their chance to have a great moment with the babyface triumphing over evil. Good match but man, SUCH a dumb finish.

Anywho, here's my report/review of the show I did for 411mania if anyone's curious:

That crowd was terrible and it definitely sucked a lot of life out of the event at points. I don't think it helped the way they mic'ed the arena though either.

Can't hate on the finish and pleasantly surprised to see people not losing their mind over the outcome due to how well it was done. I have been secretly rooting for this to go until BFG and that crowd didn't deserve to see Storm win. Also, love the juxtaposition of what just happened to Storm and what happened to Roode at BFG. If they think those two can top this (and I wouldn't bet against them) then I am all for it.